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The United States delcared its independence from Great Britian
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Continental Congress approves first official flag of the U.S.
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The first set of laws for the United States
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Uniteds States drafts the Constitiution in place of the Articles of Confederations
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George Washington becomes the first President of the United States
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First ten amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified
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U.S. capital moved from Philadelphia to Washinton DC
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Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president in Washington, DC
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The U.S. purchases a large amount of land west of the MIssissippi River from the French
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition team reach the Pacific Ocean
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The U.S, goes to war with Great Britian
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Francis Scott Key writes Star-Spangled Banner as he watches British attack on Fort McHenry at Baltimore
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Spains agrees to cede Florida to the U.S
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Texas declares Independence from Mexico
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More than 15,000 Cherokee Indians are forced to march from Georgia to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Approximately 4,000 die from starvation and disease along the “Trail of Tears"
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Texas joins the United States
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The United States goes to war with Mexico in hopes to gain territory
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Mexico recognizes Rio Grande as new boundary with Texas and, for $15 million, agrees to cede territory comprising present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
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The California Gold rush reaches it height during this year
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The continuing debate whether territory gained in the Mexican War should be open to slavery is decided in the Compromise of 1850: California is admitted as a free state, Utah and New Mexico territories are left to be decided by popular sovereignty, and the slave trade in Washington, DC, is prohibited. It also establishes a much stricter fugitive slave law, than the original, passed in 1793.
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Harriet Beecher Stowe's, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is published.It becomes one of the most influential works to stir anti-slavery sentiments.
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Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska
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Abraham Lincoln becomes the 16th president of the U.S. The South secedes about a month later
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The Southern states decided to seperate from the Nothern states because they want to keep slavery
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The Union and Confederate States go to war
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The bloodiest battle of the Civil War is fought
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President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address
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Emancipation Proclamation is issued, freeing slaves in the Confederate states
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Chicago fire kills 300 and leaves 90,000 people homeless
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Lt. Col. George A. Custer's regiment is wiped out by Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn River, Mont